In Spanish, ‘vidéo’ has an accent over the second syllable. The problem? I pronounced ‘video’ like the English word that it is. When in Colombia on a recent trip and talking with my aunt (who only speaks Spanish) I was finally able to form perfect Spanish sentences and was excited to say something that involved the word ‘video.’ Imagine my surprise when she had no idea what I was talking about! It sounds like gibberish to an English listener.īy the way, that’s the way you sound, in reverse, to Spanish speakers when you pronounce correctly written Spanish sentences using the English rules of pronunciation. How could that be? You’ve highlighted a correctly written English sentence to be read aloud!? Yes, and you’re hearing how a native Spanish speaker would pronounce that English sentence using the Spanish rules of pronunciation.
Then, highlight an English sentence and have it read aloud to you by the Spanish voice (which uses the Spanish rules of pronunciation.)ĭon’t be surprised when “Juan” or “Paulina,” says something incomprehensible. If you don’t believe me about how important pronunciation is, (and have a smartphone or tablet) go to your settings and change your language to Spanish. Listen to a Spanish Native Speaking Perfect English But Spanish is pronounced differently enough, that the same exact word (spelled the same, with the same meaning) is unlikely to be understood if you don’t pronounce it, correctly. And you have to tune your ear so that you can hear and understand them when spoken in Spanish, as well.Įnglish and Spanish share an almost identical alphabet. But you can’t use them in Spanish until you can pronounce them in a way that a Spanish speaker can hear them.
ANKI SPANISH FREQUENCY LIST HOW TO
You already know what they mean, how to spell them, and how to pronounce them in English. The Cost of Cognate Acquisition: Pronunciation To my knowledge, even online curriculum providers are just starting to integrate Davies’ work into their approach to teaching Spanish. It takes exposure and lots of time to incorporate new information into accepted pedagogy. They all suffered from significant limitations before Mark Davies’ breakthrough version in 2006 (book title here). There’ve been six efforts to create a Spanish frequency dictionary starting in 1927. But, until now, it’s been impossible to formulate such a list without a decent frequency dictionary. Why Doesn’t Every Spanish Teacher Start with This List? But, 477 of them will be words whose meaning you already understand. As in any language, you’ll have to learn how to use verbs. Verbs make up 477 of these 2500 cognates in the top 50%. To get to 50%, the top cognate verbs must be included. That’s a reversal of the common complaint of being made to learn grammar and having no vocabulary with which to say anything. English speakers who want to learn Spanish get a 50% head start on the most critical words in the language.Īfter learning that they exist, and how to pronounce them, English speakers can say plenty (in Spanish) after learning a bit of grammar. 50% of the Top 5000 Words in Spanish are Cognates! Īll this, and yet, for English speakers learning Spanish, it gets (much) better. And, your comprehension would rise to 95% if you understood the top 5000 words. To put that in perspective, you would understand ~90% of every word spoken or written in Spanish if you knew the top 3000 words. And 277 of them are in the top 3000! That makes them pure gold for the student first learning Spanish. All the words on the 500 Optimal First Words list are in the top 5000 most frequently used words in Spanish. What’s kept them hidden is not knowing which cognates (of thousands) are the most frequently used. That is, they have the same spelling and meaning in English and Spanish and are (very) frequency used in both languages. They are perfect (285), and near-perfect (226), high-frequency English-Spanish cognates. These words have been hiding in plain sight for centuries. As you’ll see, it’s more like “the time has finally come.” Hiding in Plain Sight for Centuries
Too good to be true? That was my first reaction when I created the list.
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